Summary:
- Biotechnology is the use of technology to change the genetic makeup of living things for human purposes.
- Two commonly used techniques are gene cloning and the polymerase chain reaction.
- Gene cloning involves four steps: isolation, ligation, transformation, and selection.
- Polymerase Chain Reaction involves three steps: denaturing, annealing, and extension.
- The three steps are repeated many times in a cycle to make large quantities of the gene.
- The DNA that results is called recombinant DNA.
- Changing an organism in this way is also called genetic engineering.